This invention relates to a sterioscopic television signal processing method, a signal transmitting unit and a signal receiving unit for implementing the method.
In one stereoscopic television system, a pair of television cameras are arranged on both sides of an object to form the right and left video signals thereof. The right and left video signals thus formed are transmitted, and, at the signal receiving side, the right and left video signals are applied to a pair of projection picture tubes which are arranged on both sides of an observer. However, since the video signals formed by the two television cameras must be transmitted as described above, the transmission band is twice that of a non-stereoscopic system and thus not applicable to existing transmission paths.
In order to overcome this difficulty, there have been proposed a variety of band compression systems. For instance, for black-and-white television, a system has been proposed in which the luminance signal of one of the right and left pictures and the difference between the luminance signals of the right and left pictures, after being subjected to band limitation, are transmitted. For color television, a system has been proposed in which R and B signals are selected for one of the right and left pictures while a G signal is selected for one of the right and left pictures while a G signal is selected for the other picture, and the signals thus selected are transmitted after being processed with a color encoder.
However, these conventional band compression systems are disadvantageous in that the transmitted video signals are low in fidelity, and therefore the reproduced picture is low in quality.
Especially, in all conventional band compression systems which allow a person to see sterioscopic television pictures without using special glasses, the transmitted video signals are low in fidelity. Accordingly, the conventional band compression systems are not applicable to a system which has been invented by the present applicant in which an improved stereoscopic image display screen permits a person to observe stereoscopic images without using special glasses, this improved screen being described in Japanese Application No. 122717/1982 in the name of the present inventor, which is hereby incorporated by reference.